The state's largest airport has upped the ante in its quest to move a small, century-old east Little Rock church congregation to make way for development.
The congregation of New Hebron Baptist Church, near the corner of Ninth and Maxwell streets, accepted a $710,000 offer from Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, according to an Aug. 6 letter from its attorney.
But the church hasn't closed on the offer despite several attempts, prompting the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission to vote Tuesday to spend up to an additional $20,000 to help the 150-member congregation pay the rent at a temporary location while a new church is built.
The commission also voted to begin condemnation proceedings against the church if an agreement isn't worked out before 4 p.m. Friday, even though a notice to vacate given to the church has a Nov. 11 deadline.
The church is in the way of an expansion of Dassault Falcon Jet's modification center on the north side of the airport. Earlier this year, the company announced that it is investing $30 million to expand the facility and add 300 jobs. The center, which finishes the company's business jets, employs about 2,000 people with an annual payroll that's expected to reach $200 million by the end of the year.
Airport staff members expressed confidence that they could meet the commission's deadline.
"If we can find an alternative place [of] worship, I think it will happen this week," said Judy Ross, the airport's property, planning and development director.
Tuesday's vote is the latest development in a saga that has stretched out about two years and tested the patience of commission members.
"This has gone on and on and on," said Larry Lichty, commission chairman. "It's been a very frustrating experience." But the attorney for the church, Rickey Hicks of Little Rock, said airport officials are partly to blame for the delay. He said that at one time, airport officials said they would build a new place of worship for the congregation and even retained an architect. But airport officials later learned that regulations governing airport funds didn't permit such an expenditure.
"It was an honest mistake," Hicks said in an interview Tuesday. "The airport created high expectations. I had to show [the congregation] a lot of law they didn't want to hear." The church is roughly part of the same area the airport has been buying up for the past few years. Most of the east Little Rock neighborhood has been purchased, its residents moved and the residences demolished to make way for an extension of the airport's general aviation runway, an estimated $17 million project. Of the 177 properties acquired for the project, 70 of the parcels had occupied structures and, of those, 70 percent were owner-occupied.
The church wasn't in the way of the runway extension and so was unable to qualify for that program.
Relocating the church qualified under a federal program to mitigate aircraft noise around airports. In April, the airport made a final offer of $396,000, about $60,000 more than a October 2005 appraisal of the property. The Federal Aviation Administration in July authorized the airport to offer the $710,000.
The airport also agreed to pay moving and re-establishment costs estimated at $20,000, and up to $2,000 per month in rental costs for up to 12 months.
Church officials had difficulty locating a temporary place of worship while their new church is built at 10th and Barber streets.
"The congregation was pretty rigid: `We are not leaving until we have another place to go to,'" Hicks said. "`You can help us and we can leave faster, or we can do it and it won't go as fast.'" Once church members located a temporary place to meet, they learned they couldn't afford the $5,000-per-month rent.Commission member Tom Schueck made the motion to spend up to an additional $20,000 with the stipulation that staff members try to negotiate a lower monthly rent for the church.
The prospect of beginning condemnation proceedings against a church didn't sit well with some commission members.
"I know it can be a political nightmare," said one commission member, Carl Johnson.
Virgil Miller also thought the commission did the right thing.
"I get the sense the commission wants to work with New Hebron," he said. "I don't want the sense to be heavy-handed."
This article was published 09/19/2007
